Before The Fall
"Before The Fall" is the first episode of Predators & Prey. It belongs to the first season of the story. Plot The episode starts. Alex was outside in his neighbourhood, walking on the sidewalk as some cars passed him. He took out his MP3 player and put his earbuds on. you only call me when you're high?" by Arctic Monkeys begins to play Alex made it to the door of his best friend's house. He pressed on the doorbell, though, the viewer wouldn't be able to hear it as the song mentioned above was playing over. Shane Payne opened the door, and, with a smile he gave Alex a brotherly hug, for their bond was that close. Both Alex and Shane were wearing baggy clothes. They pulled their hoods attached to their hoodies on as Shane took out a spray can, shaking it sideways as if to try and persuade the other into joining him in graffiti bombing. Alex smirked as the two of them left Shane's porch. They soon made their way to the rather poor side of the city. The streets were pretty empty, so they didn't go too far in when entering an alleyway. The false sense of security that the two had made them even more courageous. Alex put his backpack down, unzipping it and taking out his spray can. He looked at Shane, who gave Alex an assuring nod. Alex shook the spray can and began spraying on it, expressing his... 'artistic emotions' by the act of vandalism. Shane served as lookout, watching out for any passerbys or worse, any police cruisers! Alex was soon done. He looked at Shane, who pivoted around to take a peek at his best friend's expression. A cigarette in between his brims, lit. Alex had spray painted a catchy slogan on the wall; "FUCK THE WORLD, LET IT FALL". It also had an edgy anarchist A symbol next to it. Shane bumped fists with Alex, both chuckling to each other until... music stops playing. Beep beep, a police siren blared for a very short second. Both Alex and Shane froze, as the speakers from the cruiser turned on. The voice of the police officer in the cruiser spoke through the speakers. "Alright, Alex, Shane, don't tell me it's you two again." Shane's suspections were true, he recognized his father's, William's, voice. He instantly tossed the cigarette away in hopes he didn't see him smoke. William stepped out of the cruiser, his elbow resting against the roof of the Crown Victoria cruiser. "How many more times will I have to catch you guys getting in trouble again?" William asked the two. Alex and Shane looked at each other before switching their gaze at William. "Dad, it's not what it looks like, I--.." Shane said, before getting cut off by Alex in a panic. "We were just passing by!" William rose an eyebrow at Alex, noticing his backpack on the ground and a spray can exactly in Alex's hand. "Right... Get in the car." William told, sitting back in. Alex and Shane sigh in disappointment as they obey. Sliding into the back of the cruiser, both Shane and Alex were quiet. William drove off from the alleyway, his eyes peeking at the rear-view mirror for a short second. His eyes meeting Alex's and his son's. "You know, you're lucky that i'm the one telling you to get in the back of the car. If that was someone else, you two would probably get a fine, and a record." He said. Noticing the silence of the duo, William added: "I don't even know what happened to you two kids. You used to be so good, and now, you fell right into the eye of the law. Especially you, Shane." Shane scoffed, turning his head sideways to stare through the window. Alex kept his head down. "And you, Alex?" William kept talking. "Well. Your parents are going to be really disappointed today. Again." Alex peered up, looking at William sharply, "My mom is dead." he told. William, instantly returning a sentence: "You know that's not what I meant, come on. I'm talking about Jill." Alex grew a pretty pissed off expression. He obviously didn't like his stepmother. "Jill can walk out of the door the same way she came in." William heaved a sigh. "When will this immaturity end? You're putting so much stress on your dad's head, it's making him tired, you know? Soon you have to think about growing out of this rebellious behavior and think about others, rather than yourself... It's not my place to say what you have to do, but it's a piece of advice. If you want to be something in life, you have to get your stuff together.. Otherwise people will flock away from you." Alex sat there silent, listening to William's morals. Alex shook his head to himself slowly, "Jill was never there for me. She's only here because she's got nothing in life for her. It's too late to start paying attention to me now. All she wants to do is break the family." Shane cleared his throat. He has his own, biological mother in his family, but he does understand Alex in a way. He wanted to comfort him, but decided not to. He just listened. The cruiser arrived back at Alex's home. William opened the door of the cruiser for Alex, as there was no handle in the back seats of it. Alex stepped out, looking up at William. William nodded to him once, "Well. Take care, Alex. Say hi to your dad for me. I gotta drop Shane home and head back to work." Alex returned the nod, "Alright. See you, Shane." Shane would then respond, "Yeah, sure. See you tomorrow." William walked back to his cruiser as Alex walked up the steps of his porch and entered his house. Climbing up the stairs again and entering his room. The next day, Alex got down the stairs. his school bag on his back. Before stepping outside, John, Alex's father called for him. He walked over to the kitchen, watching John and Jill sit at the table, both looking up at Alex. "So what'd you do to deserve a ride from a Seattle Police Officer yesterday..?" John asked. His hands clasped together, resting on the wooden table. Alex sighed, waving his hands together as he spoke "Listen-- it was just a stupid thing... Me and Shane just..." John cut Alex off. "..Decided to tag up a wall?" Alex frowned, shrugging his shoulders. "Well... Yeah.." Jill, Alex's stepmother spoke up. "You should learn the consequences. Putting you in jail should be a punishment enough, and it would be about time." Alex looked at Jill, giving her attitude, "Why are you even here? Don't you have my dad's money to waste or something? I mean, that's why you're here for in the first place, right? The money?" Jill's eyes widened in surprise at the backlash. "That's.. John, you know this attitude is unacceptable, right?" John let out a sigh, as if this happens too many times in the family. "The only thing unacceptable here is you. Get out of my face." Alex said to Jill, about to turn towards the door. "Alex, hold on." John said, "We can't keep arguing like this. Jill is here to help me - help me deal with all.. This, you know that, right? It's hard to be a single parent. I need you to understand that." John looked Alex in the eyes. "You do know your mother's passing hit me hard, don't you?" He then added. He exhaled, before nodding. "Yeah. I understand. I'm sorry." "Good. Have a good day at school, son." John patted Alex on the shoulder before turning at Jill, who seemed to be disappointed by how John handled his son. Alex left the home. Jill cleared her throat. Silent fell upon the room, before she decided to break it. "You know we can't keep dealing with him like this." John frowned at Jill. It was like he understood her partly, but didn't want to at the same time. "I know, Jill. But listen.. Alex, he has.. He has a good heart. Deep down inside, he's still grieving for his mother. I know I still am, too. We just have to give him space and let him figure that stuff out by himself." "We let him figure that stuff out by himself.. By letting him vandalize walls? He's becoming into a criminal. His school friends have a bad influence on him." Jill kept speaking. John nodded once, "I said he has a good heart. If there's anyone I know that wouldn't become a criminal, it's Alex." He stood up and then walked to the living room, turning on the TV. a local news channel was on, talking about the weather and what not. John sat down on the couch, still conversating with Jill. "If we force our authority on him, he'll rebel even more. That's just how it works." He added. "But it shouldn't. /We/ are his parents." Jill said. "Which means we should support him while he's.. Going through whatever he's dealing with." "You know. Arguing with you over this is pointless. You just don't see it..." "And you do?" John asked Jill. "...I do. When I look at Alex, I don't see a man in him. He's sixteen but he's still acting like a child. It is only a matter of time until he stabs someone or something." Jill expressed her thoughts on her step son, staring at John. "You know what, i'm done with this conversation.." John scoffed. He couldn't believe what his wife of four years was saying. Jill shook her head, rubbing her temple. Soon enough, the electricity would go out, causing the TV to shut off. John glanced at Jill. "I guess there's some maintenance going on. Might as well as go and do something productive" John mumbled, pushing himself up from the couch. "I'm going to the store to get groceries, you want to come?" He asked. "Yeah, sure..." Jill responded. As the duo got ready and left the home, locking their door, the electricity would turn back on. The television switching back on. The news channel was still playing, but this time the news anchor was talking about a 'cannibalistic outbreak' in numerous US cities. ''"...As people are rising up from the dead and eating each other. The United States government advises everybody to stay at home, get food and water and basic survival items. Never open the door unless you're entirely sure it's okay to do so. And most importantly... Avoid getting bitten, as..." ''Once again, the electricity gets shut down. Elsewhere, Alex was already in school. He bumped fists with Shane and two other boys - Omar and Kevin. They were in his friend circle. All of them get in trouble just as much as the initial two. "What's up, man?" Omar greeted Shane and Alex. "Nothing much. Got shit from Shane's pops yesterday." Alex cheesed. His hands crawling into his pockets. "Really? What'd you do?" Kevin asked. "Got caught tagging a wall." Alex simply told, with Shade adding: "And this idiot said we were just walking in there... While holding a damn spray can in his hand with the whole alley way smelling like paint." The group chuckled along. "Haha.. What a way to make me look bad!" He playfully nudged Shane. "It's all cool. No shade no gain, am I right?" Omar said. "I guess you could say that." Shane nodded. "Speaking of tagging up walls..." Kevin mumbled, "You guys want to go to an abandoned house after school? We could tag that place up and maybe have a little drink or two to celebrate it!" he suggested. "Sounds like a plan to me." Omar agreed, looking at Shane and Alex. "Yeah, sure, why not?" Alex nodded. "Yeah." Shane added. "Great, man. It's going to be fun." Kevin grinned. Time passed. School was over. The group of four can be seen walking around the very same poor neighbourhood of the city that Shane and Alex got caught in yesterday. They walk a bit further before turning to face an abandoned projects building. In some places, there were holes in the walls and there were no windows. The group stepped in. "Voila, the palace of... Palaces..." Kevin cheesed, putting down his backpack against the wall on the floor. Taking out a few cans of beer while Alex took out a spray can from his own backpack. "Shut up." Shane cackled, he took a beer can from Kevin's hand, cracking it open. He took a sip from it. From a distance, sirens could be heard. Multiple cruisers rushed past the abandoned building they were in, and disappeared into the distance. "God fucking hell, that scared my ass so much..." Omar huffed, releasing a sigh of relief as he took a can of beer. "You really think they'd call in four cruisers just to deal with a couple of delinquents? Hah." Alex chuckled, shaking his spray can a bit. "Well, you never know." Shane suggested. Alex shrugged, extending his hand towards the wall. He pressed on the little nozzle on top of the spray can, beginning to paint on the wall. After taking his time, he sprayed "NO GUTS, NO LUCK" on the wall this time, implying he has all the guts to keep doing what he's doing. "You're such an emo." Kevin noted, sipping his beer. "Okay Mr. Linkin Park fan." Alex said, taking a can of beer after setting his spray can down. He sipped some of the liquid, as more cruisers seemed to rush past in the same direction. He looked through the hole in the wall, watching sirens and police lights trail off. "The fuck is happening over there...?" He mumbled. "Man, I don't know. Probably some bank robbery or whatever." Shane said, shrugging it off. "As if, I doubt it." Omar shrugged off, wandering off after taking a sip of his beer. "Come on, let's tag something else u--.." Suddenly, Omar screamed as once he turned a corner, a man lunged at him, snarling and growling at him. Omar fell on the floor with the man on top of him as the trio rushed to help Omar. "What the fuck!? Get this guy off of me! Ahh!" Omar screamed, trying to fight him off with punches, only to let one punch slip and enter the man in the mouth. The man bit Omar and actually ripped a finger off - with that, Omar screamed even more in pain. The finger fell down on the floor, however. Shane would kick the man in the side, his kick powerful enough to force the man to fall off of Omar, who crawled away. After that, Kevin and Alex would try to restrain the man by holding him down, but the man kept trying to break free while growling. "This guy is a grade A meth head, man!" Kevin yelled, letting go of the man as he almost came close to biting him in the hand as well. They all back up, with the man rising up again. The man limped towards Alex now, who kept trying to back up. "Fucking-- do something!" Alex yelled, backing up to a wall. Kevin panicked and instead of helping, he ran out from the abandoned building while Shane picked up a brick from the floor and hit the man with it behind him in the head. The man would fall, a foot away from being able to reach Alex. The man was still conscious and trying to reach for Alex. "How is this guy still awake!?" Shane panicked. He motioned Alex to back away, and he did so. The man was now crawling towards the duo. Alex ran towards Omar, who was sitting against the wall, still in shock that he lost his finger. "Omar, let's go -- get up!" Alex told. Omar nodded, getting up - his breathing growing more erratic as he's still panicking. Alex, Omar and Shane all ran out from the same hole in the wall that they entered in. The man struggling to rise up, but eventually doing so and following after the trio with slow, slow limping. Cast Protagonists *Alex Wolf *Shane Payne *John Wolf *William Payne *Jill Wolf Neutral * Omar Wilson * Kevin Saunders Deaths None Category:Visatus Category:Predators & Prey Category:Predators & Prey Episodes